This falls within the realm of strong rumor, but it's an exciting rumor all the same. Deadline is reporting that Benedict Cumberbatch is "in deep conversations" to play cryptanalyst and computer scientist Alan Turing in the biopic The Imitation Game, a script from the 2011 Black List. Will Cumberbatch make the jump from playing a literary genius to playing a historical one?

Graham Moore's script for The Imitation Game has already been buzzed about as an Oscar lock, and originally Warner Bros. picked it up with designs on putting Leonardo DiCaprio in the starring role. Teddy Schwarzman's Black Bear Pictures recently acquired the script and signed on Headhunters director Morten Tyldum.

Carson Reeves has a breakdown of the script over at ScriptShadow, and he's impressed. Most of the film focuses on Turing's work cracking the Enigma Code, but it also jumps between Turing's youth and his relationship with Christopher Morcom and the 1950s, when the authorities learn that Turing is gay (although one of Reeves' complaints about the script is that it doesn't focus enough on Turing's sexuality). After seeing Cumberbatch's turn as Sherlock Holmes, it would be interesting to see him play a different sort of problem solver, one who places his attentions on technology, and the intensity of his rare human relationships.